The present invention relates essentially to a method of production of methane or of a methane-containing gas mixture by means of a sulphur resistant or thioresistant catalyst.
It is also directed to the catalyst for carrying out this method.
It is already known to perform the synthesis of methane from a gas mixture comprising among other components carbon monoxide, hydrogen, water and sulphur compounds and said gas mixture may in particular be obtained through coal gasification and be contacted with a catalyst likely to activate the synthesis reaction.
For that purpose, various catalysts have been proposed but it has been found that they quickly become spent or exhausted or deactivated in view of the presence of sulphur compounds.
Thus, catalysts for the methanation reaction which which are based for instance on molybdenum and/or nickel deposited onto an alumina support have already been proposed but such catalysts are far from being very satisfactory with regard to their activity and their selectivity in favour of methane production.